


Happy Birthday Seto

by Yoshistar123



Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! Trash - mostly Flareshipping [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Established Relationship, Happy Birthday Seto, Kaiba Seto Needs a Hug, M/M/M, Multi, Slight Puffshipping, flareshipping, it's Seto's birthday I'm way too excited for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-02 11:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21160721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoshistar123/pseuds/Yoshistar123
Summary: It's Seto's birthday and he finally gave them permission to celebrate it, so they threw him a party, just for him to thrash them all at Monopoly. Very gay, I made myself feel way too many emotions writing it so I hope you feel way too many emotions reading it.





	Happy Birthday Seto

Seto woke up alone. As he reached out across his bed two things became apparent to him - firstly, someone had turned off his alarm, the clock reading 9:00am instead of its usual 6:00am (it used to be 5:00am, but Yugi and Atem had put a firm stop to that one) and secondly, his two bed-mates had already gotten up. Sitting up and getting off the bed, he took a minute to survey his surroundings. A hot cup of coffee (black, two sugars, to his exact specifications) sat on his bed-side table, and his clothes were set out on his desk chair. Yugi and Atem must have been responsible for this, Seto reasoned, though he was not massively fond of why. His birthday was not something Seto was keen on celebrating, it couldn’t achieve anything useful so why bother, yet both Yugi and Atem, and the rest of their little group of friends had been adamant that they would celebrate it. So, Seto had grudgingly given permission for a party to be thrown in his mansion, as long as it didn’t include anything overkill. He’d rather celebrate his birthday calmly than through a huge celebration that would involve him having to do something ridiculous, such as karaoke (he knew that they had thrown a karaoke party for Jounouchi; Seto had purposely been “working” that day).

After heading to the bathroom, Seto pulled on the clothes that had been left out for him and downed the coffee. The door to the bedroom slid open, and Atem entered, stepping just over the threshold and grabbing Seto’s attention, “Good morning Seto, and Happy Birthday.”

“Atem. Thank you.” The polite sentiment was forced out, Atem’s birthday wishes leaving a bad taste in his mouth. It would take a while for him to get used to celebrating his birthday. Though he usually wouldn’t care, his birthday meant something to them, so he would accept it just to make them happy.

“I’m taking you out for breakfast, and then we can spend some time in town until the afternoon. Yugi’s not coming.”

Seto easily made the connection. Atem was getting him out of the house so Yugi and the others could prepare for the party. Not a particularly good strategy, but he would play along with it for now. “You do realize that I will have to go into the office at some point, right? Just because you deign it acceptable to waste the day away because it’s my birthday,” he spat the word out, still not pleased that he’d agreed to this, “doesn’t mean that I can spend the day slacking off. Don’t think that I’m going to let you get away with turning off my alarm.”

“Very well, Blue Eyes,” Atem sighed (the nickname still made Seto shiver with something akin to affection), “but I’m still taking you to breakfast, so finish getting ready and meet me downstairs.” Atem left the room, the door sliding shut behind him. Seto shook his head, a small smile on his face against his will, and followed Atem out the room.

“Where are you taking me?” Seto questioned, easily keeping pace with Atem (longer legs; much longer legs) as they walked down the high street. Atem reached across and grabbed Seto’s hand, lacing their fingers together as he led Seto to their destination. 

“Why don’t you try to figure it out Dragon? You always say that you know Domino better than all of us after all.”

“I may know Domino better than you but that doesn’t mean I’m telepathic. You’re going to have to tell me.”

“Just relax Seto – you don’t always have to know everything that’s happening. It’s your birthday, let me treat you.” 

Seto frowned, not impressed at Atem’s reluctance to tell him. Sure, he trusted Atem, but he still wanted to know where they were going. Maybe he does need to relax more. Oops.

Atem pulled Seto to a stop in front of the Kame Game Shop. Raising an eyebrow, Seto turned to the ancient pharaoh. “What are we here for?”

“So many questions, Blue Eyes. We’re here to pick something up. Wait here for a second.” Atem stepped into the shop, leaving Seto on the pavement outside. Staring at the closed door of the shop for a second, Seto shook his head and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He might as well check some of his emails whilst he waited.

“I’m back,” Atem called, stepping out the shop, basket in hand. 

“A picnic? Seriously?”

“Yes, Seto. Sitting inside all day isn’t good for you, so we’re going to sit outside instead. And no, you can’t say no.” Atem started walking along the pavement again. Seto followed, sighing. It was going to be a long day.

After the picnic, which Seto refused to admit had actually been quite nice, they headed to the KaibaCorp Headquarters. Atem would have rather spent some time wandering the streets of Domino City, but Seto insisted, and it was his birthday, so Atem allowed it (despite the fact that if Seto had his way he would have spent the entire day working, as if it wasn’t his birthday).  
Upon entering the building, they were greeted by KaibaCorp staff, who all stopped to wish Seto a happy birthday (Seto was not impressed, but since Atem was there he let it slide). They headed up to Seto’s office; top floor, of course. Atem sat on the sofa that Seto kept in his office more for Mokuba’s sake than his own and looked towards the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the city, watching Seto sit in his office chair and turn on his laptop out of the corner of his eye. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and messaged Yugi, telling him that Seto was in his office (not Atem’s fault) and that they should finish up preparing for the party as soon as possible so they could get Seto to stop working for once. 

After making sure that Yugi had seen the text, Atem stood, making his way past the desk and towards the window. Seto did not pay any attention to his movements, completely focused on him work. Scanning his eyes quickly over the desk, Atem could see that Seto was working on a new project – considering that the man started a new project at least once a year Atem was not surprised – and Atem could tell that Seto would easily get sucked into his work and completely forget about the rest of the day. He hoped that Yugi and the others would finish preparing soon.

“Did you get the decorations Joey?” Yugi called as Jou stepped through the front door into the house. The group had come together on Yugi’s request to celebrate Seto’s birthday (although he would never admit it, Seto did not hate their company as much as he claimed he did) and though Seto was not one for huge parties, they were still going to decorate. After all, as Jou said, what’s a party without at least a little décor?

“Of course I did Yuge” Jou called back, leaving his shoes and coat at the door, carrying overflowing bags full of stuff, “his present is in there, and a load of stuff that I found in our house and at the shops.” Jou had moved in with Bakura recently, due to them both needing cheap housing (and Yugi knew it definitely had something to do with the fact that they both liked the other). 

“The others are in the living room, getting out presents and snacks and such.”

“Well I’m sure they’ll be ecstatic to find out they have more work to do! I’ll go join them. You coming?” Jou started heading towards the living room, bags swinging at his sides.

“Just a sec!” Yugi shouted back, Jou hardly able to hear him anyway as the chatter of their friends drowned him out. He quickly covered the birthday cake he and Atem had made that morning before Seto woke up (he really should sleep more) and picked up the tray from the counter that contained a load of snacks they had prepared for the party, before heading after Jou to the living room.

In the living room, where the center of the party would be when Atem and Seto arrived home, what could only be considered as chaos was occurring. Anzu was trying to restore some sense of order, and Bakura was trying to stop Jou from climbing on the sofa, though even their combined efforts couldn’t stop the madness. 

“You do realize Kaiba’s not going to be impressed if he finds his house looking like this, right guys?” Anzu spoke, still attempting to restore order. Yugi could tell that a different approach was needed.

“Guys! This isn’t working! We need to actually think this through,” Yugi called, causing Jou to fall off the sofa, and Tristan to actually turn around to pay attention to what was happening, “we need to be coordinated or it’s not gonna be great for Seto, so can you please stop… whatever it is that was even happening?”

“Sorry Yuge, I guess it just got out of hand.” Jou apologized, Tristan nodding his assent.

Anzu smiled at Yugi, before turning back to the group, “Thank you, Yugi. Now that they’re actually paying attention to me, here’s what I thought we could do,”

Back at KaibaCorp, Atem was patiently waiting for the all-set from Yugi. Seto had not moved from his desk since he had sat down, despite the fact that a few hours had passed. And even though Atem had gone out specifically to buy them lunch, Seto had not eaten. Pulling out his phone, Atem checked the time and any possible messages from Yugi, before sighing and moving to stand behind Seto and peek at his work. He seemed to have moved on from the project he was working on prior and was now checking through any emails he had received over the last day.

“How many emails do you get every day anyway? Surely it can’t be possible for you to receive that many,” Atem questioned, scanning his eyes quickly down the list of emails on Seto’s computer.

“Some days only a few. Some days well over a hundred. It varies.” Seto’s answer was short, still focused on his work. In a perfect world, Seto thought, maybe Pegasus wouldn’t email him so much.

Atem placed his hands on Seto’s shoulders, leaning down over him. At least whilst Seto was sitting, Atem had the height advantage. Normally, Atem wouldn’t interrupt Seto whilst he was working, unless it was far too late at night or he needed to take a break, or both, which happened way more than Atem was happy with. However, seeing as the trio had been together for around 5 years, Atem was more than well aware of Seto’s workaholic tendencies. Seeing as it was Seto’s birthday on this occasion though, Atem thought that even if he didn’t want to, he should take it easy on the workload.

“What’s this one from Pegasus?”

“He keeps bugging me about the latest cards he’s releasing. I would tell him to stop emailing me at this point, but I need to know about his new cards so I can keep up-to-date myself, and the best way to do that is through him. Annoyingly.” Seto placed one of his hands over his eyes, angry that they were starting to sting from staring at the screen for too long. Normally in this situation he would get another cup of coffee and force his eyes to focus, but Atem’s hands on his shoulders prevented him from doing this. Seto knew that the second he showed any signs of tiring Atem would force him to stop working, and he really would rather just get this over with. Pulling up the next email he had to work through, he leant forward and forced himself to concentrate. Atem’s fingers started rubbing tiny circles on his shoulders. Leaning back in his chair so he could see Atem above him (something he would never do in front of anyone but Atem or Yugi – it was unprofessional), he asked, “What are you doing?” with a little less bite than what he had been originally going for (he wouldn’t admit it, but the gentle movement on his stiff shoulders was actually very nice).

“I know you didn’t sleep well last night, and I can tell that your eyes are getting tired. You aren’t as discreet as you are trying to be, which is also an issue here,” Atem replied, watching Seto carefully, trying to find a way to get him out of his office chair to relax if only for a little while. He had no idea how long Yugi was going to be; maybe he could convince Seto to sleep a little first, “you really should take a break Blue Eyes. You can continue this tomorrow.”

Seto shook his head in disapproval, but then Atem gently covered his eyes with one hand, blocking out the light in the room, giving his eyes a chance to relax, and Seto loathed to admit how good a break sounded right then. “And do what instead?”

“Well sleep is advisable. After all, you can’t fall asleep during your party later, and three hours of sleep is not healthy either. Anyway, you can’t work if you fall asleep at your desk.”

Atem had a point. Humming his assent, Seto pushed himself up from the chair, straight into Atem’s waiting arms, who immediately lead him to the sofa (white, to go with his office, and well used by Mokuba when he would return here after school was over to do his homework). Sitting down, Seto found himself with his head laying on Atem’s shoulder, with one of Atem’s arms round his waist, drawing soft circles into his skin.

“Sleep Dragon. I will wake you when we can go back.”

Closing his eyes, Seto finally relaxed himself, falling asleep within minutes.

“Stubborn Dragon,” Atem murmured to himself, “he really needs to sleep more.”

A few hours had passed since Yugi and Anzu had finally managed to return some sense of order to the group’s preparations for Seto’s party. There were snacks and drinks out on the table, and Seto’s appropriately themed Blue Eyes White Dragon cake was safe in the kitchen, ready for later (Seto had said that if they were going to get him a cake, it had to be a good one, and it’s impossible to argue that a bewd cake is not a good cake). Duel monster themed streamers and banners decorated the living room, and despite Seto expressly saying no party poppers Jou couldn’t resist bringing at least one. He had justified this buy claiming, “a party ain’t a party if you don’t have at least one! At least it’s only one, right? I could have brought the whole pack!” which immediately made Yugi question not only his own but also Seto’s judgement in allowing this event to take place.

Along the floor next to the table was a pile of board games, mostly produced from the depths of Seto’s own house, some brought by others, among which included Monopoly (which was probably a mistake, judging by who would be playing and the general nature of the game) and The Game of Life (which should logically be more harmless, however Yugi was far past believing that anything they did could be considered harmless, especially with both Jounouchi and Seto involved).

On the other side of the table was a small stack of gifts. It was easy to tell which gift was from which person – Anzu’s wrapping paper was a soft pink (“It’s not because I’m a girl!” She had exclaimed when Jou had queried her on it, “I just happened to have some lying around!”), Jou’s wrapping paper was a standard “Happy Birthday” wrapping paper, which had also been used by Bakura, the main difference being that Bakura actually knew how to wrap presents, and had refused to help Jou on the excuse that “you’re going to have to learn eventually, Jou. You can’t put it off forever.” Tristan’s wrapping paper had little motorcycles on it (“I saw it in the shop, and I liked it, and it turned out to be the only tube of wrapping paper I own.”)

Yugi and Atem had shared their wrapping paper, as they were giving joint gifts (with the two of them together they could wrap presents twice as fast). Their wrapping paper was white, covered with lots of little Blue Eyes White Dragons, which should be pretty self-explanatory, they were gifts for Seto Kaiba after all. It was almost a surprise that the man hadn’t found a way to bring the dragon to life yet, however Yugi was aware that it was something Seto had thought about (Yugi thought he should be worried that Seto had genuinely considered bringing the bewd to life, then he remembered that if he could bring Dark Magician to life, he probably would). However, there weren’t any gifts from the two in Seto’s small pile, Atem and Yugi having decided that they can give their presents to Seto after the party.

Anzu and Bakura were currently sat on one of the two sofas in the room, with Jou perched so close to Bakura on the edge that it could easily give the impression that the two were dating (Yugi was waiting for them to either finally get together, or finally tell everyone, and considering how obvious it was that the two liked each other, both options were ridiculous and should have already been completed). Tristan was sat on the other sofa, and Yugi himself was in the armchair that was definitely intended for one person, although it could fit three (this fact had been tested many times, due to it being Seto’s preferred chair - closer to the door, more accessible, he’d gone over the reasons why he preferred it many times – and Yugi’s fondness for cuddling, and Atem’s fondness for being in any space that contained both of his partners).

“I think we are finally done guys!” Tristan proclaimed, relaxing back into the sofa.

“Finally! Why does Kaiba need such a big living room anyway? Though I will admit, these sofas almost make it worth the effort,” Jou agreed, slouching back into the sofa as he spoke, half on top of Bakura due to their placements on the sofa. Neither seemed to mind the physical contact.

“It will be worth it, especially if we can get Seto to relax for at least one evening,” Yugi’s soft voice came after Jou’s, as he pulled out to phone to alert Atem that they were done.

“Agreed,” Anzu spoke confidently, not so subtly shooting a look at Jou. She continued, looking towards Yugi as she asked, “does Kaiba ever stop working?”

Finishing his message to Atem, Yugi turned back to Anzu, “believe me, I wish he would take a break more often.”

In Seto’s office, Atem had been passing the time with a game app Yugi had shown him on his phone, when he received Yugi’s confirmation that everything was ready. It had been an hour since he had finally convinced Seto to take a break, and the overworked CEO hadn’t stirred at all since, despite a brief visit from the secretary to drop some papers off (she took one look at Seto and Atem on the sofa, placed the papers on the desk and left quietly, whispering that she’ll make sure no one else bothered them – even Seto’s employees thought that he should take a break from working at least sometimes). Since then, no one else had entered the office.

After reading Yugi’s message through, which contained a picture of the living room (Atem was impressed) and a very direct message of “you and Seto can get down here now, we’re ready”, Atem turned his attention back towards the sleeping CEO. Through the course of the hour, Seto had gone from just leaning on his shoulder to being curled up on his lap, unnecessarily long legs brought up onto the sofa and snuggled up against the rest of his body. His face was relaxed, and Atem smiled at seeing Seto finally get the rest he more than deserved. Shame he had to wake him up now – it wouldn’t do for Seto to miss his own party.

Running a hand softly through brown locks of hair, Atem spoke, “Blue Eyes? It’s time to get up now.”

Seto tended to be a light sleeper, though sometimes when he hit the peak of his exhaustion, he could sleep through the second coming of Jesus. Reasonably, Atem should be able to wake him gently.

“Dragon? You can’t miss your own birthday celebration,” he kept carding his hand through Seto’s hair, as his eyes slowly blinked open.

“Atem?” Seto mumbled, slowly trying to push himself up from where he had laid whilst he slept, “What time is it?”

“It’s currently 4:00pm Seto, we can head back home now.” 

Seto pulled himself to his feet and smoothed out his hair, his eyes blinking rapidly to clear the sleep from them. He checked his own phone, before turning to Atem to see him standing up and heading for the door, motioning Seto to follow. 

Walking after Atem, catching up to him easily, Seto took a moment to mentally prepare himself for what he might see once he got home. Seto had never celebrated his birthday before, and probably never would have if it weren’t for Yugi and Atem. Seto nearly expected his house to be lying in ruin once he got home, and he wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. It was going to be a long evening.

“We’re back!” Atem called as they stepped through the front door. Seto took a minute to survey his surroundings – he couldn’t see anything different yet, but based on the chatter that was coming from the living room, he was going to have to take those words back as soon as he entered the room.

“Hey guys! We’re in here,” Yugi replied, Atem immediately following his voice to the living room, Seto just behind him. 

Seto entered the living room to a chorus of “Happy Birthday”s (which he was not impressed with, but couldn’t do anything about. Happy Birthday indeed), only to stop and demand (though his tone was notably softer than it would normally have been in such a situation), “What have you done to my living room?” Any sense of order had been destroyed. In return for leaving the rest of the house intact, the living room was a mess of “Happy Birthday” streamers and banners and basically anything birthday related you could think of, and as soon as Seto walked in the door Jou set off a party popper. “I said no party poppers Jounouchi.”

“Lighten up a little rich boy! A party isn’t a party without at least one party popper. At least it’s only one, right?”

Seto frowned, rubbing his eyes with one hand to convey his exasperation. Why had he expected any different? “You know you are tidying this up, right?”

“We wouldn’t have it any other way Seto,” Yugi spoke, stepping in before a fight could escalate (last time they had left the two to argue, Bakura ended up having to drag Jou off home before he could try – and fail – to put Seto in the hospital), “Shall we do presents first, then?”

The members of the friend squad all agreed, so the presents were picked up and passed round to in front of Seto, who had kicked Yugi off his favourite chair, only to have Yugi sit on top of him instead. Picking up one of the presents, Seto turned to Jou, “have you never wrapped anything before in your life? Mokuba could have done a better job than this when he was 7 years old.”

“Shut it Kaiba, I never really had the chance to practice. And anyway, why does it matter how good the wrapping is? You’ll definitely like the present,” A smirk crossed Jou’s face, giving Seto the impression that he probably won’t like the present. He pulled off the wrapping paper neatly, looking at the contents.

“… what is this?”

Jounouchi snickered, “It’s a Blue Eyes White Dragon onesie. I got it because of the freaking dog onesie you got me for my birthday. Consider it payback, Kaiba.”

“… words fail me,” Seto frowned, rubbing his hand along the soft material. It actually seemed to be of pretty high quality, which was a surprise considering that it was bought by Jounouchi for Seto. He refused to admit that he would be putting it in his wardrobe later, rather than disposing of it immediately.

“Where did you even find that Jou?” Anzu asked, looking towards the fluffy mass on Seto’s lap.

“Online. It was kinda expensive but totally worth it for the look on his face!”

Atem shook his head, “only you would go that far, Jou.”

Seto placed the onesie down beside his chair and picked up another gift. He turned it over in his hands, before looking straight at Bakura, “Maybe you should have given Jounouchi some advice on how to wrap a present – it seems your standards are considerably higher.”

“Thank you, Kaiba,” Bakura replied, physically holding Jou back from punching Seto to next week (“Please don’t kill Kaiba on his birthday, Jou”).

Seto pulled the wrapping paper off the gift, revealing a small, handmade deck box, with little Blue Eyes White Dragons decorating the sides.

“I wasn’t sure what to get you, considering anything I could think of was likely something you have anyway, so I went with this. I hope you like it.”

Seto paused, studying the box carefully. He took his deck from his pocket and slid it into the box, it fit perfectly. “Thank you.” Picking up the next present in the pile, he pulled the paper off to see the item inside, a sleek white and blue motorcycle helmet, before looking straight at Honda.

“I know you have a motorcycle, so. Here.” Honda explained. Seto nodded as thanks, then picked up the last present.

“Pink, Anzu, really? I would have thought you would be above the gender stereotypes.”

“Hey! I’m not doing it because I’m a girl, I just happen to like pink. Why does everyone say that?”

“Because pink, Anzu,” Jou pitched in, and Yugi had to step in before some sort of public shaming occurred, all because Anzu happened to like pink.

“Whatever,” Seto cut Yugi off, before opening the present, “Friendship bracelets. I shouldn’t be surprised.” Seto then proceeded to surprise everyone by sliding one onto his wrist. Even Anzu gawked, before smiling brightly (something that was not lost on Seto, he might not have cared that much for the bracelets themselves, but he wasn’t heartless, unlike what some people might believe), “Thank you, Anzu.”

After everybody recovered from the shock of Seto not immediately burning anything to do with friendship, they decided to whack out the board games, starting with Monopoly. It was immediately decided that they should partner up to try to reduce the amount of murders after the game was finished, and as there was an odd number, and Seto was well, Seto Kaiba CEO and Chairman of the largest multi-national gaming corporation in the world, it was a unanimous decision that Seto could go by himself. Jou went with Bakura, Yugi with Atem, and as the only two left Anzu and Honda went with each other.

No one would ever be able to figure out why they thought Monopoly was a good idea, as only about 30 minutes into the game, Seto owned half the board and Jounouchi had threatened to kill everyone at least twice, with only Bakura able to calm him down (Yugi could almost smell the gay).

“Damnit Kaiba! I swear you must have cheated! How can you have all the reds and the yellows with 3 houses on all of them already!” Jou and Bakura had just landed on Piccadilly (4 houses, forcing the pair to pay £1025. They only had £300).

“Because I know how to play the game, mutt. Maybe you should try reading the rulebook again,” Seto snarked back, watching Jou sell all their houses, as Bakura mortgaged their properties (maybe playing alone, Bakura might have been actually competent at the game. However, seeing as he tended to let Jou make all the decisions, Seto had no way of judging if this was true or not). With all the money combined together, they only had £990.

“You gotta let us off for this, man! We were so close!”

“But why?”

“Because you already have most of the money, and we were only £35 off!”

“Bold of you to assume that I don’t want all the money.”

At this point Bakura stepped in, sliding all their properties and money to Seto, before Jou actually reached across the board to strangle him, “Here.” He then turned to Jou, speaking in his usual soft voice, that immediately made Jou calm down (“Gay,” Yugi whispered under his breath, Atem the only one to hear him. He immediately burst out laughing), “We lost, but that doesn’t mean we can’t support the others. Also, you really shouldn’t be surprised; just because Mayfair has a high rent doesn’t mean it’s an automatic win. And we were playing against Kaiba. Maybe next time we can do better.”

Jounouchi shut up after that.

As the game progressed, the amount of money and properties in front of Seto steadily increased, whilst the amount of money and properties in front of everyone else did the exact opposite. Once everyone had been rendered quickly and smoothly bankrupt, it was agreed that they should never play Monopoly with Seto Kaiba ever again. Not if they actually wanted to do well, anyway.

“Aww, scared I’ll crush you again? Sorry the rules are too hard for you to understand,” Seto remarked, in response to Jou’s prior statement that “we should never let Kaiba play Monopoly with us ever again.”

Atem stepped in before a war broke out, “No, you’re just too good Seto. I’d take you on, but two player Monopoly is a tad anti-climactic.”

“Yeah, maybe we should play something else instead. I would suggest Duel Monsters, but I feel like that would have a similar outcome,” Yugi spoke, agreeing with Atem.

“Hey, what about a game that is more based on luck? That way it’s more fair. I think we have Frustration in the pile somewhere,” Anzu pitched in, quickly agreed with by everyone else, mostly to get the Monopoly game out of their heads. They all hoped that maybe there would be less damage caused – they were very wrong.

“Damnit, why can’t I get a six?!” Honda shouted at the die, Jou quickly showing his assent, by shouting very loudly, and mostly at Seto, who had somehow managed to get two of his counters home already, whilst Jou had only gotten one out at all (Yugi had taken it out about halfway round the board. Jou was angry, but Yugi showed no mercy). Honda had rolled a three, currently his most rolled number – he had one counter out, but none home.

Yugi and Atem had teamed up, and Bakura and Anzu had sat out, mostly for damage control, and partly because they just weren’t interested in playing, so the group didn’t exceed the 4 player maximum of Frustration, which was exactly what it says on the tin.

Yugi and Atem were doing quite well, with one counter home and another halfway to joining the first, but no one was doing anywhere close to how well Seto was doing.

Seto himself was incredibly surprised at his current success. Monopoly, sure, because that’s a strategy game, and Seto was extremely talented at that kind of thing, but normally luck always took a back seat when it came to him. Jounouchi, however, always seemed to get a lucky break, oh how the tables have turned.

“Seto’s got birthday luck,” Yugi snickered, laughing at Jou and Honda’s utter desperation to get a six, “you can’t beat him.”

“Birthday luck?” It was a new concept to Seto.

“Yeah! It’s your birthday so you’re getting super lucky. How have you never heard of birthday luck?”  
“Never really noticed anything, and never paid attention to my birthday.”

Yugi faltered for a second, but nobody seemed to notice, “Well you know now.”

The game continued in this fashion, Seto speeding ahead to finish first, followed by Yugi and Atem, then Honda, and Jounouchi finished last. He was not impressed. Bakura ended up holding him back, for the tenth time that night.

Monopoly and Frustration were followed by various games such as The Game of Life, Operation (was probably a bad idea), even normal card games, ranging from Poker to Go Fish. In each game, Seto either won or did incredibly well. Jounouchi did not have a good night (if you don’t mention how every time Bakura touched him he melted a little).

As time passed, they quickly forgot about eating dinner, becoming immersed in the games. Of course, due the large number of snacks they were eating, nobody really minded. However, they were still hungry enough for cake. As the clock hit 9:30pm, Atem finally checked his phone for the time (they did have a clock on the wall, but no one actually looked at it and they were all proficient in pulling out their phones for the time instead) and realized if it continued in this fashion, they would never eat the cake. He nudged Yugi and gestured to the time. Yugi immediately worked out what he meant (the two did share a body for a considerable amount of time. They may not be linked anymore, but they knew each other very well) and stood up, catching everyone’s attention, “Cake Time!”

“So you did get a cake after all,” Seto interjected, in amongst the cheers from the others (mostly Jou and Honda) at the prospect of cake.

“Of course! I think you will find you like it,” Atem replied smoothly, and shutting Seto’s mouth before he could say anything else.

Once everyone had gathered in the kitchen, Yugi pulled the cover off the cake (they would have sung Happy Birthday, but it was agreed that maybe that would be going to far), to show what was possible the most ridiculous and somehow amazing cake that Seto had ever seen. It was made by Yugi and Atem, so of course it wasn’t perfect, but the small flaws strangely enough made it better. It was a soft light blue, with three little Blue Eyes White Dragon figures perched on the top. In white letters underneath the dragons, it read “Happy Birthday Seto”.

This was one of those moments where Seto’s brain was completely unprepared for how to react, “What?”

The room was silent for a minute, Seto’s brain trying to figure out how the hell to react, Yugi and Atem smiling (they were also laughing under their breaths, Seto not having a clue what to do was quite funny to people who have seen him be perfectly prepared for the weirdest situations) and the other four mentally questioning how good this cake was going to taste (even Bakura and Anzu, they have generally had better manners, but they were still people, and people who happened to like cake at that).

“The first slice is yours, Seto,” Atem quickly cleared the silence away, saving Seto from having to process the situation even further. He handed Seto the cake knife that had been left nearby and gave him a plate. After cutting himself a small slice, Seto passed the knife to Yugi, and eventually everyone had taken a piece (the size of each person’s piece turned out to be quite representative of that person, Seto and Atem taking smaller slices, Bakura and Anzu taking medium slices and Jounouchi, Yugi and Honda taking the biggest pieces).

Once the slices had been eaten, everyone concluded that Yugi and Atem were weirdly good at baking. 

The next hour passed quickly, with people eating more cake (“What?! It’s a good cake!” Was Jou’s response to all the eyes turned his way as he went to get his 5th slice. Yugi was glad he and Atem had planned for this and made a larger cake) and talking; what they’ve been up to and stories about their school days, amongst other things.

Anzu was the first to head off, quickly followed by Honda (“I have to get up early in the morning” and “I want to be awake enough to laugh at Jou when he doesn’t get enough sleep” as their respective reasons). Bakura and Jounouchi left together, obviously, (“We wouldn’t want to overstay our welcome.” Bakura was way too polite sometimes, though it probably helped when dealing with Jou).

Once everyone had left, Atem went around picking up the leftover plates and glasses to bring them to the kitchen. Seto went to help him, but was rejected (“It’s your birthday, relax”) and Yugi ended up helping instead (Atem would have done it all himself, but for only seven of them there was an incredibly large amount of stuff left lying around).

“You two do realize that you are responsible for the death of my neat and tidy living room, right?”

“Yes, and we’ll clean it up, tomorrow. But right now, it’s getting late, so we should probably head to bed,” Atem finished clearing up the last of the plates, Yugi following him back from the kitchen.

“Yeah, I don’t know about either of you, but I am exhausted!” Yugi added, flopping down on top of Seto, “And no,” Yugi continued before Seto could speak, “you aren’t going back to your work.”

Seto lamented the loss of his chance to work, “Fine, Pipsqueak.”

“And we can give you your presents now,” Atem added, heading towards the bedroom.

“Ok, but I expect Mokuba will likely call first.” Mokuba had only recently headed to America for a few weeks to sort out some trouble the American Branch of KaibaCorp. Seto’s prediction turned out to be correct, as only a few seconds later, his phone began ringing (normally he would have it on vibrate, but he didn’t want to miss any calls during the afternoon, so he took it off silent).

“Hey nii-san! Happy Birthday! How’s it been?” Mokuba’s cheerful tone came through the speakers. Thanks to Mokuba’s penchant for video calls, Seto could see that Mokuba was currently standing in the office of the main KaibaCorp building in New York. It was only morning for Mokuba after all, so business seemed to be in full swing.

“I suppose it could have been worse,” Was Seto’s response, before Yugi and Atem squidged their way on camera.

“It was really fun – Seto kept beating us at all our board games.”

“Ah, birthday luck,” Mokuba nodded along to Yugi’s statement, causing Seto to wonder if he really was the only one who had never heard of birthday luck before, “Anyway, I’ll give you your present when I get back, nii-san, I bet you’ll love it!”

Seto nodded, Mokuba immediately taking it as a thank you (he was well versed in Seto-speak, as it had become called over the years – thought of by Yugi when the four of them had been talking about how some people completely failed at being able to read Seto).

Mokuba’s secretary came up in the background of the call, apologizing and asking Mokuba if he could get on focus, “we have some serious issues in the game testing department” and thus Mokuba had to leave.

“Sorry Seto, time-zones and all that. When I get back, I’ll wish you a proper Happy Birthday.”

“It’s ok Mokuba, you need to get back to work. I’ll see you in a week’s time,” Seto started, joined by Yugi and Atem to say goodbye to Mokuba.

“Bye guys!” Mokuba returned, before the call cut off.

Entering into their shared bedroom, the first thing Seto noticed was the stack of presents on the bed (king size, with crisp white sheets – Yugi must have made the bed after Seto and Atem left because the sheets weren’t that neat when Seto got up) with the appropriately themed wrapping paper. Pajamas were laid out for the three of them, and Yugi practically pounced on his (“What? They’re comfortable!”) and the lighting had been set to a point where they could still see but wasn’t so bright that it might hinder one’s ability to sleep. Yugi was already swapping his current clothes for the pajamas, Atem following his lead, so Seto went to join them, after quickly heading to the bathroom to brush him teeth. Atem and Yugi went to the bathroom to complete standard hygiene tasks after they had changed.

Once they were sitting on the bed – Seto finding himself squashed in between the two spikey-haired duelists – Yugi handed him the first present in the pile. Opening it, he found it to be a small Blue Eyes White Dragon plushie (Seto was starting to sense a theme in a lot of the gifts he had received – he couldn’t blame them, he was a hard person to buy gifts for), which unexpectedly soft. The second gift was an aesthetic lava lamp to put in his office (the softer lighting would be nicer for his eyes) and the third was a small Blue Eyes White Dragon statue (again, theming) made of volcanic rock, but the eyes were two small aquamarine gems, polished to perfection. Upon laying his eyes on the creature, intricate details carved cleanly into the rock, Seto had to take a deep breath to steady himself. Not only was the creature gorgeous, but he simply wasn’t used to receiving such gift. Even though Atem and Yugi had bought him gifts in the past, he hadn’t felt this moved by them before. Maybe it was because he finally let the group celebrate his birthday, maybe it was because of how much he liked the gifts, or maybe he was just becoming soft (better bury that possibly under a landslide, Seto Kaiba could not afford to be soft). 

As Seto went to pick up the last gift, he felt both Yugi and Atem stiffen beside him, causing Seto to feel a little worried himself, about the possible contents of the last present. He took off the wrapping paper to reveal a small, velvet box. Seto stopped functioning, especially when both Yugi and Atem got off the bed, held the small box in one hand each, and knelt down on one knee. Seto had to force himself to remember how to breathe.

Yugi started, “So we weren’t sure how you’d react to this, but were both definitely sure that it was something we both wanted.”

Atem followed, “Even after everything we’ve been through, I still love you.”

“As do I.”

“So would you do us the honour of being our husband?”

Seto forgot how to breathe for the second time in a minute.

Atem lifted open the lid of the box to reveal three silver rings, one with an amethyst set into it, one with a ruby and one with a sapphire. Seto’s eyes widened and began to fill with tears (he had not been ready for this, not today, not ever had he expected anyone would want to marry him), a few falling slowly down his face.

Yugi and Atem looked at him in trepidation, waiting for his answer.

Taking a huge gulp of air, Seto rearranged his thoughts long enough for him to provide them with his answer, “yes.”

The two men in front of him cracked huge grins, and that was the trigger for all of Seto’s walls to crumble immediately, and he sobbed into his hands, a smile spread across his face.

“Até, he’s crying,”

“I think we broke him,”

Seto was too busy melting to death to notice the pair stand up from the floor, lightly place the box on their bedside table, and join him on the bed. A pair of hands encircled his wrists (Yugi) and another wiped the tears from his eyes (Atem). Picking up the sapphire ring, Yugi gently took Seto’s hand and slid the ring onto it, before then handing Seto Atem’s ring (the ruby one) and handing Atem his own (amethyst). 

Blinking the tears away to the best of his abilities (which wasn’t very good at that point in time), Seto looked down at the ring adorning his finger, “…why?”

“What do you mean?” Atem and Yugi made eye contact for a second, sharing a concerned look. Crying Seto is a very vulnerable Seto, and with all his walls down, Yami and Yugi could easily see the doubt and fear crossing his face.

Seto took a minute to collect himself (again) and pressed against his side, Yugi and Atem could feel him shaking, “Why would you want to marry me? I’m an awful person.”

“Because we love you.”

“But why?”

Yugi and Atem looked at each other, sharing identical looks of concern and worry. Yugi was the one to answer him, “Because you’re you, Seto. I love the way you work so hard to better your brother’s life, even if I’m not fond of the way it keeps you up all night. I love the way you care so deeply about the people you love, even if you don’t show it sometimes. I love how when we sleep at night you hold us so tight, I feel like nothing could ever hurt me again. I love you. We love you. So please don’t feel like you aren’t worth it, because if the last five years has taught me anything, it’s that you definitely are.”

Atem continued, “Even when you’re being difficult, or thrashing us at a game of Monopoly, I still love you. Because that’s what love is, and I want to stand with you forever. Yugi is right, you are worth it, and you are most definitely one of the best people I have ever met. Even if you are too tall for me to kiss properly.”

Seto started crying again. Yugi and Atem clung to his sides, and maybe after all of this, Seto could start to believe that maybe he was worth it, maybe they did love him. And he loved them back.  
“I can’t believe you two sometimes,” Seto started, his speech punctuated by hiccups and gasps of air, his face wet with tears, “Only you could do this to me.”

“What kind of fiancés would we be if we couldn’t,” Yugi giggled, trying to pull Seto closer to himself (only to fail because Seto was too tall and Yugi did not have enough arm strength to move him. Yugi ended up pulling himself onto Seto instead).

“I hate you so much.”

“Nah, you love me.”

“Don’t know why, but yes, I do. I love you way too much for my own damn good.” Seto wrapped his arms tighter around his partners, pulling them closer than before (if that was even possible at this point), the gems on each of their rings sparkling in the dim light.

Atem smiled (even more than before, somehow) pulling Seto down onto the bed (and consequently pulling Yugi as well, who was attached to Seto) so they were lying down. The dim lighting, the soft bedsheets, and of course his two lovers clinging to his sides helped Seto to relax, gaining control over his breathing. There were still tears in his eyes, and Atem reached over and wiped them away gently, Seto blinking away the remnants of his brief crying spree (Seto didn’t think he’d ever cried more in his life; he couldn’t afford to before, but now, he could allow himself to be vulnerable at least a little bit). Some of his breaths were still a little shaky, but Seto finally felt like he was back in control of his body again. He felt strangely comfortable, with two menaces in his arms and a silver ring around his finger.  
Seto’s eyes fell shut, his body becoming lax on the sheets, Yugi’s head on his chest and Atem’s just under his arm, with both pressed as close to him as they could manage. As peace fell over the bedroom, Seto’s last thought before he fell asleep was,” Maybe birthdays can be good after all.”

And then all was silent.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I might write more stuff for this, but at the same time I spent so long writing this that I did literally nothing else - it was fun though.


End file.
